DanMachi 17

After a bit of experimentation with the magic stones, metals, and enchantments, I found out that I could add metal to the edge of the pendants, without them getting heated up. So, I started the process of creating three different necklaces. One for Olivia, one for Hestia, and finally one for me.

For Olivia's design, I went with a coin-sized pendant, surrounded by orichalcum with a small loop at the top, allowing it to be attached to the thin woven chain I made. Her pendant had a Yin-Yang symbol on it, with the Yang part of the crystal raised, and the Yin part lowered, while the back side of the pendant held the enchantment. In addition to the defensive spell, Olivia's necklace had an additional enchantment, for both of our sakes.

For Hestia's necklace, I went with a little flame, symbolizing her Hearth's Flame Arcanum. Similarly, to Olivia, she had a thin woven chain made from orichalcum.

And lastly, for mine I went with a blank coin-sized pendant, my only interest was the enchantments, not how the pendant looked.

While experimenting I made a surprising discovery. The runes made out of magical stones had extreme durability while active, but if not, they can shatter with a light hit.

So to prevent the pendant from accidentally breaking, another useful enchantment was added to all of them. It was a detection spell that triggers the shielding enchantment if the user was in danger. It was quite an easy creation, it was always active and sensed the area around the user while it was kept active by the user's passive mana regeneration. It barely had any upkeep and it triggered the other spell if something or someone approached the user at high speeds while the user didn't notice or react to it. This will hopefully stop any assassination attempts.

Probably because of the magical core's level, the pendants had a surprising capacity of 30.000 mana, so without a refill, it could cast the shield spell three times in a row. I filled up all three necklaces and walked over to the still-training Olive.

"Honey!" I call out to her which makes her stop mid-swing.

"Yes?" She says with a small smile. She always loved me calling her like that.

"I made you something." I say presenting her with the Yin-Yang necklace.

Her eyes go wide and a squeal of happiness exits her lips, she drops her sword and runs towards me. Her hand reaches for the pendant and starts inspecting it.

"It's beautiful." She says after a moment of silence. "Can you put it on me?" She asks tilting her head to the side and blinking rapidly.

I would rate her act ten out of ten on the scale of cuteness. "Sure, turn around." I say and she turns around and lifts her hair. I move behind her and put the necklace on, then plant a kiss on her nape, making her shudder. She quickly turns around and pulls me into a deep kiss. Our make-out session this time wasn't interrupted by anyone. But we pulled back before stepping over the last line. It might have been the laws of the world screwing us over or just the boredom we daily face, but we've been having so much sex in this world. Not that I'm complaining.

"Anyway..." I say after she breaks the kiss. "Give this one to Hestia when she comes back home, if I do it she might get the wrong idea." I don't even have to explain Oliva nods and takes the flame necklace and places it into her inventory.

"Now there are two spells on it, plus an additional one on yours. A detection passive spell that you should feel already pulling some mana to stay active, this one has two jobs, keeps the crystal sturdy because of some magical shenanigans, and trigger the shield spell, the one we tested out earlier, when the wearer is in danger.

The shield, as you already know, will heal light wounds, or sacrifice itself to heal heavy wounds. You can activate the shield spell anytime you want just by inserting your mana into the raised part of the pendant.

The pendant can store 30,000 mana and is currently full, the shield spell can be triggered 3 times before the pendant runs out of mana." I take a breath and then continue. "Now, the other spell I added to your pendant, was the contraception spell we've been using, it can be turned on or off by inserting mana into the lowered part of the pendant. Currently, it's disabled, but you'll feel it when it's active, as it does have a bit of a mana drain. Hestia's pendant doesn't have this function so you don't need to explain it to her."

"Yeah, that would have been weird if you added that to hers." She says with a laugh. "Thank you, for always thinking about me." She reaches around my neck and pulls me into a kiss.

"Well, you're an important part of my life. How can I not care about you?" I reach around her hip and hug her tightly.

Yeah over the months spent with her I realized how lonely my life was, how unmotivated, how truly depressed and uncrating I was. The moment she appeared everything changed for the better, and I'm grateful for her being by my side. The hug lasts a bit longer than usual and Olivia notices it.

"Everything alright?" she asks with concern in her voice.

"Yeah, just thinking how lucky I am to have you by my side." I say letting her go, but she pulls me back and hugs me tighter.

"You're not the only lucky one." She says then rises her head and plants another kiss on my lips. A large smile blooms on her face. "Thank you for being there for me." She says with a lot of love in her voice.

Our pink moment extends for a few more minutes, but I reluctantly let go.

"I should go and find the Pallum girl, while I have the time." I say. She nods in agreement and lets me go.

"Take care of yourself, and don't get into any unnecessary fights!" she says.

I rise my hand to my forehead and give her a salute, which makes her giggle, but her eyes turn serious.

"I mean it! I don't want to find out later that someone massacred the whole Soma familia..."

"Okay, okay, I'll be careful." I say, and give her a wink then [Void Step] out of our garden.

Thanks to [Celestial Eyes], the search for the Soma familia estate wasn't that hard, I only had to focus on their god. I located him inside a wine cellar, moments after activating the spell.

Soma was a strange god, his only wish was to perfect his wine, and didn't really care about anything else. He let his familia to fall apart and become thieves and murderers. His current captain, Zanis, was a greedy, level-two bastard, who abuses Soma's personality and quirks. He was the one truly running the familia, and bringing it down to the ground.

I [Void Step] directly into Soma's "office" and greet the god.

"Good afternoon Soma." I say to the god with messy hair, wearing only rags. He doesn't acknowledge my presence and continues experimenting with his wine.

"You do know your familia is falling apart? I came here to take one of the better ones, Liliruca Arde the Pallum girl, with me."

Again only silence greets me.

"Your housing thieves, murderers, and rapist in your abode."

"This doesn't concern you." He says with a annoyed voice

"You're right, it does not. Why should I care that your negligence, lead your familia into crime? That's all on you champ. Your captain is forcing your wine on women and children and then abusing and raping them." This statement pulls his attention away from his wine.

"That can't be true, my life's work shouldn't be used like that." He says his voice grim.

"You know it's true, you can tell it with your oh-so-powerful godly truth telling powers. If you don't want me to clear out the filth from your familia, start doing something or they won't be the only ones visiting the heaven."

"You can't talk to me like that! Show some respect!" He barks at me.

"I'll show you some respect when you deserve it! Now get your ass out of this shithole and get your fucking familia in order, before I cut them all down including you. Purge, Mistilteinn!" Fifty swords materialize inside the room, fully lighting it up, they vibrate with power ready to be used, and arcs of electricity start jumping from one sword to another. The god frozen in place by the sheer power displayed by the spell, doesn't say a word, he only looks at it with amazement.

"I'll be taking the girl with me." I say. "This was your last warning. Don't make me come back."

With that last sentence, I cast [Celestial Eyes] and locate the Pallum girl, then [Void Step] right in front of the girl. The girl screams out in surprise a stranger appearing in front of her out of thin air was not an everyday occurrence.

"Yo!" I say with a wave, then grab onto her jacket and [Void Step] her into our house.

"Aaaaa!" she screams as she lands on an unfamiliar floor. Olivia hearing the commotion runs downstairs and notices the screaming girl she quickly turns towards me and asks.

"Did you really just kidnap her?" She rises her eyebrow.

"We'll it's easier to explain the situation to her on a comfy sofa, than in a dark alley." I say with a shrug then turn back and face the disguised Pallum "That said, Liliruca Arde could you turn off your shapeshifting spell? We need to talk." The mention of her full name makes Lili tense up, but knowing she's way underpowered she dispels her spell and leaves it up to fate. She turns from a short human girl, into a 110 cm tall Pallum with chestnut-colored hair. "Good, let's go into the living room." I pick her up by her jacket, holding her like a briefcase, making the girl violently flail her hands in protest, but I don't care, so I carry her into the living room. While I was doing that Olivia gave me a deadpan look, I just smiled at her and continued.

I throw the girl on the sofa and sit on the armchair in front of it. Olivia takes a position next to me, sitting on the armrest, crossing her legs and wrapping her arms around me, placing her head on my shoulder. I wrap my right hand around her waist and rest it on her hip. The most perfect look for a villainous monologue.

"So Lili, I'll call you Lili from now on, because your name is too long." I say and receive a light slap on my head, but I ignore it. Lili on the other hand goes eyes wide.

"I talked with your god. He's an idiot, but he will probably start cleaning up the familia. If not, I gave him a warning that ill clean it up myself." I say with a shrug.

"You did what?!" Two voices exclaim at the same time, one from my side, the other from the front.

"Yep, we had a heated discussion regarding his captain's actions. He's probably already dead or in prison. You don't need to know the details. I brought you here because I want to add you to our, Hestia familia. I'm the Captain, Andrew Thompson." I point to my right. "And this lovely lady is Olivia Lane, my girlfriend and at the same time the vice-captain."

"Hi, Lili." Says Olivia with a bright smile and waves. "Don't be scared of this idiot, he's just acting, he's actually a really caring type." I roll my eyes and continue my talk.

"Our familia is small, it's only me, Olivia, and our goddess, for now. But we are planning on expanding pretty fast in the following months. All of our members will be thought magic by me, and if needed sword arts by Olivia. So what do you say? Wanna join our little familia?" The little girl couldn't keep her tears at bay and burst out crying. Olivia's motherly instincts flipped on and she practically teleported next to the little Pallum and hugged her, making her tense up for a moment but after feeling the warmth of the hug leaning into it and continuing to cry.

A few hours pass of us talking things through, Lili agreed to join the familia and even told us about her past. I, who already knew part of it, wasn't really shocked by it, but Olivia on the other hand just tightened her hug around the poor girl with a hard life.

Hestia arrives home around seven o'clock and was introduced to the little one. She took her away to her own room for interrogation and after thirty minutes a new member joined our familia. After that Olivia pulled Hestia to the side and gave her the necklace I made, happy squeals were heard from the living room, just before a goddess-shaped bullet flew out and tacked me. Making our new member look at us in wonder.

Lili was currently level one, with her stats all over the place. Olivia and I were planning on taking turns doing dives with her every morning. The plan was to set her on a path to become a tank, especially because of one of her skills, [Artel Assist]. The skill increases all of her abilities depending on her carrying weight, and I had a plan on how to abuse the skill to its fullest, bulking her up with heavy plate male armor.

Her true training started after she received four bracelets and a necklace from me the following day. The necklace was the same one I made for Olivia and Hestia, but this one had an additional weight increase enchantment, the same as the bracelets. I did get a tight hug from her, for the first present she ever received, before she started crying again. I just looked away awkwardly and patted her head, while Olivia was giving me a knowing smile. The next few days went by with me teaching her magic in the mornings, followed by Olivia's sword practice and then a few-hour dive into the dungeon's early floors.

Oh boy, was she surprised when we just teleported directly into the dungeon, leaving out the annoying descent and the walk all the way from our house. She made me teach her the spell right away, and I did agree, it will help her massively in positioning while in combat. The only problem was her measly amount of mana and her spell slots. Her current magic stat was sitting around 200 and without the system's assistance, her maximum will be 999 for every level. So no overpowered 10,000 mana spell for her. I had to sit down on the drawing board and design a new spell for her.

She already had one Cinder Ella, which I did inspect but didn't find any new rune in it, so she could have two more additional spells in her arsenal. Well only if I didn't cheat.

I created a database-type spell for her, like Lefiya's but on steroids, in total it could store up to 99 spells and all the user had to do is learn their chants to save the spell inside of it.

The best part? You didn't need to chant the spell to cast it, you only had to call out the spell's name and supply it with mana, and the spell would automatically use the mana to create a runic script and cast the selected magic. That's how one of my best creations, Animus was born.

[Animus lvl 1]

- Database-type spell storage magic.

- Learning a chant or its runic script, allows the user to store it in one of its 99 free slots.

- The spells can be called out at any time, without their required chant.

{Affinity: None}

{Chant: *Spell Name*, Animus}

After teaching it to her, she took to it, like fish to water. She already had a few spells stored in it and blazed her way through the dungeon first floors spamming her spells and hitting early monsters harder than a truck.

The bracelets were helping her increase her stats by a tremendous speed. Her endurance strength and even magic, because she had to keep mana flowing into them to keep them active, skyrocketed from low 200 to 700 in barely three days. I have even created a hammer for her, it was a simple one with a long rod, the only interesting part was the enchant on its head, which could increase its weight up to twenty times.

By the end of the week, Lili has found a place in our familia and started trusting us a lot more. Well, she did start trusting Olive a lot more than me, but that was understandable. Considering there was only a 10-year difference between them, Olive acted more like a big sister, than a mother to her. But I did catch her doting on Lili as a mother would.

On a side note, Hestia found out that Soma cleaned up his familia, so I won't need to intervene. A few of the bad familia members were killed in a mutiny, while the captain was captured and imprisoned. I was a bit disappointed by his punishment of thirty years of hard labor in the mines. I would have just castrated him and thrown him at some orcs, but whatever. It's better than having him run around.

This week was filled with activities tha not once left either me or Oliva bored. And it was to my utter amazement that our nightly activities didn't suffer at all. When it came to that we both just pulled out energy for somewhere. With the week coming to an end, the long-awaited message came from Tyler's workshop. The armor we ordered was ready.